Regulators

Submit 'closure of access' ideas by 6 Feb: TRAI

MUMBAI: The last date to receive comments and counter-comments on TRAI Consultation Paper on 'Issues related to closure of Access Services' has been extended.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had invited comments and counter-comments of stakeholders on Consultation Paper 'Issues related to closure of Access Services' dated 30 November, 2016. The last date for receiving written comments and counter-comments from the stakeholders were fixed as 9 January 2017 and 16 January 2017, respectively.

Considering the request received from the stakeholders, the last date for submission of written comments was extended up to 23 January 2017 and for counter-comments up to 30 January 2017.

Keeping in view the request of stakeholders for further extension of time for sending their comments, it has been decided to extend the last date for submission of written comments up to 6 February 2017 and for counter-comments up to 13 February 2017. No further requests for extension would be considered.

The comments and counter-comments may be sent preferably in electronic form. For any clarification/ information, contact Sanjeev Banzai, advisor (Network Spectrum & Licensing).

TRAI seeks to extend the time mobile users get to change their service-provider if a particular company is shutting shop or selling its spectrum.

The paper titled 'Closure of Access Service" will seek feedback from telecom eco-system stakeholders to set up a framework to give an extended time and more options to users facing termination of services. A licence coming to fruition or failure of the service provider to bag spectrum or spectrum trading are normally the reasons behind an entity shutting shop.

TRAI had taken note of three significant instances. Reliance Communications stopped CDMA services and migrated to LTE. Airtel acquired spectrum from Aircel and Videocon through trading deals. In some cases, operators do not renew the spectrum and stop offering services in a particular area. Tata Docomo has lost subscribers due to such non-renewal.